by Ben Rayner
TUNS is something of a “dream” band for anyone who’s kept an ear tilted to the sublime rock-’n’-roll sounds emanating from Halifax since the early 1990s, when the always fertile scene in that lovely east coast port city briefly bubbled up to sufficient international attention at the height of the grunge era to be dubbed a potential “next Seattle.”
Two of TUNS’ three members — Chris Murphy of Sloan and Matt Murphy of the late, great Super Friendz — were there at Ground Zero watching (and making) all that hyperbolic nonsense happen back in the day, while Kingston-bred Mike O’Neill relocated there shortly before the beloved Inbreds released their third album, It’s Sydney or the Bush, in 1996 and has stayed there ever since, more than long enough to by now rank as an actual Maritimer.
Together as TUNS, then, this trio of veteran Canadian indie-rockers is well deserving of the Hali-pop “supergroup” tag that’s popped up in most press about the new venture since it started gigging last summer, although the lads themselves are justifiably wary of embracing such a loaded description.
The Star had the band in for the second instalment of this year’s Newsroom Concert Series a couple of weeks back, albeit not in the newsroom but at the Mill Street Beer Hall — a space where, as Season 2 openers White Lung recently demonstrated, we can let our guests play as loud as they wanna play without ticking off dozens of reporters filing to deadline.
We covered all the TUNS basics during the interview portion of the session, so instead of rehashing what curious viewers can learn with the simple click of a mouse, we thought it might be fun in this space to ask Murphy, the unrelated “other” Murphy and O’Neill what their personal ideas of a “dream band” might be.
Have a read, then enjoy the music. And join us this Thursday, Aug. 18 for the next Star session at Mill Street in the Distillery District, please, when hitmaking husband-and-wife duo Dear Rouge will come by to play a few tunes.
Matt Murphy
“My dream band is Willie Nelson’s Family band. First of all, it’s Willie, so there are no duds in the set, just silver and gold. Plus, the band is exactly as loose and spirited as I like. They can play sweet and gentle on ‘Funny How Time Slips Away,’ and then instantly launch into explosive, pill-popping fury on ‘Stay All Night.’ Chris and I have spent a lot of time emulating this style for our country outfit, Little Orton Hoggett and His Ten Cent Wings. And there something of this in TUNS too, I hope.”
Mike O’Neill
“My dream band would be the Velvet Underground recordingLoaded, but with Mo Tucker on drums. Musically, I think I could have jammed with them. But partying with them would have made me blush.”
Chris Murphy
“I loved the first Elastica record. I knew someone who knew Justine Frischmann so I felt like I had this ‘in’ when their bass player quit. I can’t quite remember when this was. 1996? Anyway, I imagined myself within reach of being able to make that happen but I didn’t pursue it in the end. Probably for the best.”
--taken from: Toronto Star (watch videos here)
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